Generally speaking, I have little tolerance for the anti-choice people. By that I mean, the hardcore, single-issue anti-choice voter, the kind of person who will never even consider voting for a candidate who believes that women should be trusted to make their own reproductive choices. Those are the same people who manage to bring every single conversation around to their quote-unquote âdefense of the unborn.â They are the same people voting for politicians who gut the social safety net, donât want poor children to receive free school lunches, and want to arm teachers with semi-automatic weapons, even if it means some of those born-children are cut down in crossfire when some Dirty Harry teacher canât aim properly. As I said, I have a low tolerance for those people. But Jessica Chastain is a lot more tolerant than me. When some anti-choice advocate trolled her social media, Jessica Chastain lurked on the womanâs social media and found out that the woman has fertility issues. So Chastain donated to her GoFundMe account.
Jessica Chastain is a girls’ girl, through and through. On International Women’s Day, hairstylist Renato Campora took a photo of the X-Men: Dark Phoenix actress with the message “We Should All Be Feminists” emblazoned across her T-shirt. To celebrate the movement’s momentum, she re-posted the image on her Instagram account, captioning it, “FEMINISM: the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes.”
But one Instagram user, Karin Hallsten Schulz, responded critically to Chastain’s image. “Yes, feminist that believe in God and stand up for The Unborn. I would be for that kind of feminist,” she wrote in the comments. Showing compassion, Chastain spent time learning about Schulz’s story. “Yes, you can decide what is right for you. I am pro-choice and I believe that everyone has the right to make their own decision. I read about your journey to become a mother and it broke my heart,” she said. “I hope that your dream will come true in 2018! Much love to you.”
Chastain had visited Hallsten Schulz’s GoFundMe page, in which she discussed her fertility issues. “My hormone levels and egg quality aren’t the best, due to my age. We found out that we would need help to become pregnant. It was very disheartening to hear these results,” she wrote, adding that her struggle to conceive made her feel as if she had somehow “failed” her husband, and “the idea of having us to go into debt to become pregnant made me so, so sad.”
“With very humble and grateful hearts,” Hallsten Schulz and her husband asked people if they could make a donation to “help us have a family,” considering that infertility treatments are “not covered by our insurance company, and the cost is high. We would love your prayers also.”
In response, Chastain donated $2,000 to help Hallsten Schulz reached their $5,000 goal.
“Dear Jessica. Thank you for your words, for your encouragement and loving wishes. I too am a feminist!! It is ok if we don’t see eye to eye on everything. We do agree on more than we disagree!! You are my sister, and together wonderful change and more awesome things will happen in this beautiful world we live in,” Hallsten Schulz wrote afterward. “Love Always Karin.”
Is this a sweet story? Or is it just kind of meh story about Jessica Chastain having the patience of a saint? It made me think about some article I read a few years back about whether there was a place for anti-choice women in the current wave of feminism, and if there wasnât a place for them, what does that say about modern feminism? Personally, I donât care what it says or doesnât say about feminism. One womanâs infertility issues donât give her the right to say what I or any other woman should do with their body. Iâll be nasty about it too: if this woman has time to troll a celebrityâs Instagram with her bulls–t anti-choice rhetoric, then she has time to figure out how to pay for her own g–damn fertility treatments.
Photos courtesy of Instagram, WENN.
I am sterile. Will never have biological children. I don’t support abortion but I support a woman’s right to make decisions over her body. Ergo, I am pro choice. It’s not that difficult.
Exactly. Just because someone is pro-choice doesnât mean theyâre pro-abortion. Iâve never been in the position of having to make that decision so I canât say with absolute certainty what I would do, but Iâll be damned if anyone tries to take away my right to make that choice.
I was in the position to decide and she is now 25.
I can tell you that I am absolutely, 100% pro choice. I decided to have my daughter at 17 but that does not mean that I think that it having the baby is the way everyone must go. It is a very personal decision and no one else’s f**king business. I’ll be first in line with the pitch forks if someone tries to take that choice away here in Canada.
Sorry, I need to go relax now. *Ohmmmm*
I was raped at the age of 28. I became a mother a week shy of my 29th birthday. My son is now 12 and easily the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. That being said, I am strongly pro-choice. I chose a path that I have no expectations of other women choosing. If it were men that got pregnant I guarantee this wouldnât be an issue. Pro-women, pro-choice. Itâs that simple.
This all damn day.
well, i’m pro-abortion. that sounds harsh, but i’ve always thought it’s a much more impactful decision to bring a child into the world, than to decide not to. especially if it would grow up in a place of poverty, violence or neglect. there is nothing more sinister than pressuring a woman who doesn’t want to be a mother into having a child because abortion is somehow still seen as shameful or hard to access.
Never had an abortion, but am college educated and have extensive family support. The one time I was pregnant, I had zero problems and my child is now a healthy teenager. My point is, I can’t relate to women who have unprotected sex, rape or fear of not being able to care for a child. I do not judge what I have not lived. I am pro choice.
@twopac- you said it beautifully. We shouldnât judge what we have not lived.
I can’t have children either and I’m pro-abortion (I can’t imagine myself having one, because obvious reasons, but other women should be able to choose).
I often hear the “adoption, not abortion” argument because people assume I’ll agree with it. No, guys, you make me sick, using “my” problems to try to justify your bigotry. Be honest, you couldn’t care less if I have kids or not.
My point: Your body, your choice. In my case, it’s not that much of a choice, but that doesn’t take your right to choose away. Anybody claiming otherwise can F themselves.
/Rant off, sorry for that.
Thank you for sharing your story, Nanny.
Exactly. I strongly oppose some forms of abortion, like sex-based abortion, or people who just doesn’t give a damn about contraception (my aunt once had 3 abortions in a year when I was a child despite the fact that she already had a daughter under the one-child policy in China). But no matter how much I personally believe these abortions are wrong and morally reprehensible, I would never deny another woman the right to make decisions about her own life, body, and conscience. And honestly I just can’t understand the women who would. Like do you even realize how hard it was to fight for the right to govern our own bodies? Why on Earth would you want to give that hard-fought right up?
What is “sex-based abortion”?
I think Anne means gender-selective abortion.
EXACTLY!
Yikes – in regards to that last comment.
I think Jessica’s reaction to donate, though it wouldn’t be MY reaction, will do more to open that woman’s mind —- than if Jessica were to have been confrontational towards her anti-choice nonsense.
So kudos to her.
I’ll stay over here in the ‘do you boo’ section. The section that believes if it isn’t right for YOU, don’t do it – don’t tell others what is right for them.
My problem is that sadly not everyone is willing to live in “you do you, boo” world, and those that aren’t can be violent in their insistence that we all live by their rules. For example, gay conversion therapy, anti-choice protestors who get violent and physical with ppl just trying to get some legal medical care.
+1
Same here. Frankly Iâm out of patience but we do need the Jessicaâs who continue to show some. She also has the privilege and mental space to do so.
Well said and agree
Yes good for her. I would have told this woman to beat it.
Aggghhh, that green dress still pains me to look at it. I went off the first time we saw it. The color is gorgeous, the fabric awesome, but the construction around the breasts makes my skin crawl.
As for the story, meh. Anti-choice trolls gonna troll? And Jessica is a better person than me.
If we’re being nasty about it – If I don’t have the right to ‘interfere with God’s plan’ by aborting a fetus, then I’m not sure you have the right to interfere with god’s plan by using medical intervention to have a baby.
OBVIOUSLY this is not what I actually believe and I would never ever ever assume I have the right to comment on any human’s decision to have or not have a baby, in any damn way they please. But the hypocrisy of the anti-choice bozo’s is getting out of control.
Clearly Chastain has more patience towards this shit than I do.
This exactly. Why is she interfering with “God’s sovereign will to plant or deny life where he will?” You can’t have it both ways. We either all have the option to direct our reproduction or none of us get that option. The end.
Yeah Clare! Yeah Frome! Preach.
Maybe she should have adopted a baby that was going to be aborted. or any of the children in foster care that their mothers could have aborted but didn’t. But, as usual, her loins and genes are more special than anyone else’s.
THIS! I saw this on IG and was THIS close to tell that BEEP to shove her BEEP superiority complex up her BEEP. If she wants children and is SUCH a BELIEVER, there are a ton in need for a home. She could get her wish and be a good Samaritan, instead all she wants is to blow thousands of dollars up herBEEP BEEP so she can give birth to another BEEP BEEP who will be just as BEEP BEEP as her. Jessica obviously has more patience, but I doubt that these f**king morons are capable of understanding what that patience and kindness extended to them means.
I never thought of it like that. And I guess it reads terribly, but who are you to meddle in “God’s plan” when it benefits you, but go out of your way to make women who have abortions feel like garbage for apparently interfering with it. These people make me so angry with the myopic hypocrisy, but I guess I just don’t have the patience Jessica has. More credit to her… I guess?
Iâm with ya, @Clare.
THIS. A million times, this. I feel this way as well – god seems to be telling her she shouldn’t be a parent. Shouldn’t she listen to god’s will, if that’s what she believes? Hypocrites.
Another pet peeve of mine is when someone benefits from fertility treatments or medical intervention to get pregnant, and then after the birth says “god wanted me/helped me get pregnant” …um no, SCIENCE helped you get pregnant.
ARGH. My head is throbbing. I need to leave this thread, lol.
Yep. Yep. Yep.
It’s even more ironic, because treatment such as IVF often result in some embryos being destroyed. I guess anti-choice people don’t mind the destruction of “life” when it benefits them.
That’s why the Catholic church is against IVF.
This +1,000.
People can believe whatever they want, my issue is when they try to force those beliefs on to others, and declare that their choice must be the right choice for everyone else.
I do find it ironic that someone anti-choice, who believes unwanted pregnancies should be carried to term, isnât adopting instead of doing fertility treatments. Where does she think all those babies go?
(I know adoption is a tough, costly option, just trying to prove a point.)
Also ironic, is that as a “single issue voter,” she probably elected the very same politicians who have refused to make fertility treatments a mandated health insurance benefit in her state.
Excellent point.
Right, or those who cut spending on maternal health and welfare, or social services for impoverished children. I donât get it â they donât want abortion but are unwilling to support families.
Yes, on both points.
Oh, those antichoice people, for the most part, don’t give a damn what happens to the baby once it’s come out. Why would they adopt someone else’s castoff or help someone who’s less fortunate? It’s not ironic, it’s hypocritical
I have no patience for anti-choice women, especially someone who is so hypocritical – she wants to be able to control her reproductive future (asking for money for fertility treatments) but doesn’t believe other women should have the right to choose what happens to their uterus?!
My reaction exactly..and I was bothered by the claim that she had ‘failed her husband’ because of infertility
That woman is basically a female MRA guy
I guess she’s kinder than I would be because I wouldn’t want to give money to a woman so she could raise a kid to spout the same dangerous, hateful garbage that her mother is.
That was my first thought. Sheâs just going to raise a little anti-choice brat. Plus if her egg quality is crap, theyâre probably wasting their money. The worst thing in the world for a fertility doctor is a 40-year-old woman with poor egg quality. Itâs bad for his stats and itâs bad for her wallet.
I can’t really talk sh*t about a single issue voter because I used to be one. I worked in a women’s health care clinic for about 10 years on and off during college, grad school, and after. For years I only voted for the strongest pro-choice candidates. As I have gotten older, I have a broader view on the world… there are many issues that are important to me. I understand how someone can be personally anti-choice (as in that person would never have an abortion).. I just don’t understand how a person would want to make that the law for everyone else. This is one of those arguments that just cannot be won… people will always disagree for a multitude of reasons. Hopefully, Jessica’s donation will open this woman’s mind. Who knows?
What I don’t understand is being anti-choice and voting Republican.
For all their proclamations about “protecting the unborn”, abortion rates domestically go UP when they’re in power because access to birth control and prenatal healthcare is restricted and the social safety net is carved up. Abortions globally SKYROCKET because women at risk of child marriage, rape, etc… suddenly find funding for their only access to BC cut off by the Global Gag Rule.
Vote GOP and you essentially vote for 5-8 times the abortion numbers you would have as a result of US policy under a generic democrat. Unfortunately for the Dems though, they can’t point this out without being seen as demonising abortion services.
It’s because they are liars and hypocrites. They only care about fetuses. If they really cared about “life” then they would also be anti-war (which most aren’t) and anti-guns (again, they aren’t), and so forth. They only talk the talk, they don’t walk the walk.
It’s kind of like all the anti-gay rights politicians getting caught having gay sex, or the family values bleaters getting caught cheating on their spouses.
They are also against information and facts or – as you note – they would vote for politicians whose programs actually decrease abortions when in office (i.e. Democrats).
It makes my head spin.
My husband has a genetic condition and it took us 2 years of fertility treatments, 2 ivf, failed embryos transfers and finally iui with donor to have our baby.
Never, even when we were ready to give up, did I change my mind about being pro-choice. One ability to procreate or not do not mean you have the right to shove your believes in other people throats.
As the other poster said, how can those people talk about God’s plan when someone has a unwanted pregnancy, but if they can’t conceived, then it is not God’s plan?
In the infertility community, some people do change their mind and get anti-abortion, as they can’t get a baby and it is painful for them to think of discarded embryos. We all grieve in different ways, but in the end, no one should tell someone what to do with their bodies. And old men should not protest in front of an abortion clinic and spit on patients (as it happens in Ottawa).
Lol, i love you Kaiser. You don’t give a eff. I feel bad for this Karin lady. She seems super into Jesus and the Lord and I think her and her husband spend all day praying. I mean, I find it strange, but I also don’t want to hate on another woman who is obviously brain washed by religion.
Yeah, I have no patience for this. Not every woman is my sister – for example, the 52% of white women who voted for Trump.
In Ireland at the moment we are fighting for the right to bodily autonomy and although I am fighting for the rights of the women who oppose abortion, I do not feel a kinship with them, because if they felt kinship with me theyd be standing side by side with me instead of fighting against my freedoms.
Anyway, Chastain is trying to send a message, but it comes from a place of privilege that she can afford that money and have that voice. The money would have been better spent going to planned parenthood.
Thank you. I realize thatâs far from the point but it bothered me so much that she called Jessica her sister, so hypocritical.
I’m not Jessica and I’m not that black guy who goes around befriending white supremacists, but that IS how you change minds, so I am grateful to people like that for doing what they do.
Agreed. Folding our arms and declaring how out of patience we are feels satisfying and may be necessary for our mental health.
But we’re not going to change any minds from that position. I’m happy to support anyone who is willing to be the change they want to see in the world one step at a time.
I don’t think Jessica changed anyone’s mind on abortion with this action.
@PPP, I totally agree. I donât have the temperament to do it, but understand it is more effective so Iâm glad there are others to take that approach. Iâm with you & Kaiser. Theyâre doing Godâs work!
People love to throw out that black guy who “converts” white supremacists. I don’t have the patience for it. Taking time out of my life to convince someone of my humanity? Unpaid? No, thank you.
I’m not sure this is how you convert extremists of any stripe. I was listening to an interesting talk by a dude who used to be a white supremacist in Quebec and now is trying to deradicalize others, and it sounds like people who hold extreme views do so until they choose that it costs them more than it’s worth or they become disillusioned with the extreme group to which they belong. That comes from the inside, not outside, and seems entirely self-motivated and negatively motivated, so it makes sense that compassion and understanding don’t make much difference once someone already holds anti-social views.
That said, I think compassion is something you give out of respect for yourself and your own core values, regardless of whether the recipient is worthy or how they receive it. So maybe Jessica’s choice here simply reflects her own basic decency (and privilege to have the energy and money to spend on trolls) rather than an intent to convert. I don’t know what I’d do in her shoes, but my inclination is that folks who don’t play nice shouldn’t get cookies (I wonder what that says about my core values? lol)
That was a nice thing to do.
I wonder why that woman’s church wouldn’t have given her the money. We know they have enough to pay for several rounds of treatment.
Because folks who believe in prosperity gospel believe there’s something wrong with YOU if God isn’t giving you all the $$$ and babies and dreams – which is a very convenient way to scam people (give to your church and God will repay 10 times over) and shift any sense of responsibility for the poor or underprivileged (For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away, blah blah blah). It’s a screwed up philosophy far closer to chain email scams / the Secret than anything Jesus preached.
She “failed her husband” bc she can’t have kids? Imagine what she would teach a child đ Since were being blunt I hope she doesn’t bring someone into the world and poison them with that mindset.
I think this woman should have adopted from a woman who was forced to have a baby (for one reason or another) rather than have an abortion.
Please lord let that money go to waste and that woman does not plague this earth with backwards thinking ppl like herself. Better that woman not multiply…
I have no patience for this and wouldn’t financially support someone vocalizing an anti-choice opinion when many women are losing access to abortions all the time in the current political climate. Mississippi just banned abortions after 15 weeks. With the explicit purpose of chipping away at women’s choice until abortions are banned. This is a health and safety issue first and foremost, beyond being a matter of individual philosophy. And guess what, in countries with abortion bans not all people are truly banned from having them. Just the ones least equipped to raise children. Dialogue is great but I think the line needs to be drawn there.
“This is a health and safety issue first and foremost” – Thank you! The abortion issue gets discussed and debated ad nauseam, but you know what I hardly ever see being discussed? Just how risky pregnancy and childbirth are to a woman.
Globally, the maternal death rate has been dropping. It is still shockingly high in some of the least developed countries, but they are making progress. But here in the U.S. – in the “greatest country on earth” maternal death rates have been going UP. Today, if you are a pregnant woman in the U.S., you have a 1 in 1,800 chance of DYING as a result of giving birth. Some studies have that number even higher. https://www.npr.org/2017/05/12/528098789/u-s-has-the-worst-rate-of-maternal-deaths-in-the-developed-world
Doesn’t it seem archaic to be having this conversation in 2018? Pro-choice encompasses pro-life. You don’t have to have an abortion if you do not want one. It amazes me, all of us discussing this. As far as abortion goes the problem occurred months ago with unprotected sex. Deal with that issue!! Oh wait, then men would receive some of the responsibility and we can’t have that.
I am Canadian, and I have decided to never vote for anyone who even mentions abortion as an election issue. We decided a long time ago that a woman has a right to decide what to do with her own body. That does not make me “PRO ABORTION” … it makes me PRO CHOICE.
I feel you. I’m in Ontario and Doug Ford who has just won the provincial PC party race has promised to reopen the abortion debate so he’s off my list.
i’d say i’m pro abortion because you gotta own what your enemy thinks you are in order to take away their power over you. i’m sick that it’s even up for debate in 2018.
Fortunately, our Supreme Court has found that access to abortion is a constitutionally protected right, so any bone-headed politician can talk all they want about re-opening it, but unless they change our Charter of Rights and Freedoms (which they will never be able to do given the consensus it requires), they cannot impinge on our access and are subject to court challenge if they try to do it the back way by reducing revenue to support those services. We are fortunate in Canada that although we may have individuals who are trans/homophobic, racist and/or misogynist, our systems are insulated to a large degree from being poisoned by that kind of prejudice and bigotry.
I also read something about pro-life feminists and their beliefs. It was sort of interesting. A lot of them strongly believe that society has failed women when it comes to supporting mothers and their children. They are fighting for things like paid leave, affordable childcare and all that too. They think that mothers shouldn’t have to make the choice to have to “resort” to an abortion and that there should be other options in place to help women who are faced with that choice…Unclear on what those are though! Adoption? Government $ to help raise the child? And what happens in extreme cases of rape or incest? I don’t know. At the women’s march in LA there was a pro-life group who came out to march and they were harassed a bit and told to “go home” and “you don’t represent us” etc. It’s tough because many feminists believe that being pro-choice is essential to feminism. That if we can’t control our reproductive freedom we can never have true equality. I believe that too. But all’s that to say is there are common ground issues that pro-life and anti-choice feminists may be able to unite on. I don’t know. But I think that’s what Jessica was trying to do here. Kill hate and division with love and empathy. Maybe that woman will think twice before judging others now. I hope so.
“But allâs that to say is there are common ground issues that pro-life and anti-choice feminists may be able to unite on.”
But “pro-life” is just the word anti-choicers use to describe themselves because they won’t own up to being only bro-BIRTH. There is no difference between being “pro-life” and being “anti-choice” – they are both terms for the same thing, being anti-abortion.
I meant to say pro-choice and pro-life* My bad.
Pro choice simply means making it legal to snuff out the life inside a uterus. Just be honest about it.
That was a nice thing to do. It takes a lot to donate money to someone who is an ass-hat. I probably would have donated the money to planned parenthood. But, that’s me.
As for this woman’s future kid, I believe in the law of opposites. Remember, how in Family Ties the two liberal-hippie parents ended up with a Republican son? Let’s hope that this woman’s kid is a BIG OLD liberal with purple hair and a non-conforming identity. Ha!
PS: $5000 isn’t that much debt! Cost of a week for two at a high end resort. Cough it up, cheap @ss.
If you canât afford $5k, how are you gonna afford a kid? Kids are expensive af.
I watched Jessica in Mollyâs Game last night and was impressed with her performance. I like that she tends to play strong, complex women onscreen. I appreciate that she sticks to her guns and is willing to see the other side of things but as someone whoâs pro choice, I canât agree with her actions here.
A woman’s choice to carry a baby to term is a choice. What pro-lifers want to do is remove that choice, while at the same time providing close to zero protections to the woman pre, during and after birth. No free childcare to cover a full-time job, forcing women to sacrifice their career or pay a king’s ransom for it just to have someone to take care of their kid(s), little to no employment protections (let’s face it, companies invent some bullshit that is not labelled as pregnancy-related excuse to get rid of women to have to take care of kids), low paying jobs, etc. Maternity pay is garbage (90% of normal pay for the first 6 weeks, so that means a massive pay cut to about ÂŁ150 a week before taxes, don’t give me the transportation costs, some people like me walk to work). And that’s in the UK, stateside is even worse, I know. How many women can afford to stay home without any real income?
I have had two abortions. One I had because of a severe medical complication which made termination of my pregnancy something completely unavoidable. The other one I had because I chose to and because I wanted to. I don’t regret it for one second, not even for one millisecond. I already had one child (who I almost died giving birth to due to my fragile medical status) and then eighteen years later got pregnant again, and there was no way I wanted to start over raising a baby when the child I had was a brand new adult and off to college. I will never regret that choice. I wanted to finish my PhD instead and also to spend some of my adulthood not raising a child (I had my son when I was 19), not that I even needed a reason. I am now 40 and both my son and my stepson are off to college and my husband and I are empty nesters. And it is glorious! My body, my choice. Period. I am not a brood mare.
I would be very hard-pressed to have an abortion myself. I had my first son at 19 (found out I was pregnant about a week before I left for college) – he’s 23 now and graduating college this year. My second son I had at 31 and I almost considered an abortion with him because I realized too late that his dad was fkn insane and it was a shitstorm of drama, but I didn’t. Because of personal, religious beliefs. HOWEVER, I was glad to have that choice, I fight for EVERY woman’s right to have that choice. I have friends who have had abortions and their reasoning was varied and intensely personal. And hell, I’ll get nasty too – if you can’t afford your own fertility treatment, can you afford to have a kid? Normally, I’d never say something like that but since this woman thinks she gets to weigh in on the decisions of others to have a child, BOOM. Begging for charity before you even HAVE the child is *not* a good look, hun.
Was just talking about this with my boyfriend. Most pro-lifers are pro-in vitro and all kinds of fertility procedures. We were wondering, do they realize how anti-life the whole process is? I mean Im no expert but Im pretty sure they discard embryos if they dont develop properly. Its so insanely contradictory it makes you see right through their BS.
I said this upthread, but the Catholic church is against IVF etc because of the reasons you mentioned.
“Iâll be nasty about it too: if this woman has time to troll a celebrityâs Instagram with her bullsât anti-choice rhetoric, then she has time to figure out how to pay for her own gâdamn fertility treatments.”
That pretty much says it for me.
I am infertile. It took me awhile to accept that fact and to decide not to pursue motherhood (instead I am pursuing a career as a teacher) but I am finally at peace with the issue.
I do not agree with abortion. However, I also do not agree with pushing one’s beliefs into others. If people agree with abortion, that is their right to do so. Neither stance should be vilified or made to feel that they are “wrong”. Different people have different beliefs and values. It’s what makes this world interesting.
No. You don’t get to define my pro-life stance. Or decide that I’m not pro-woman or don’t care about infants or children when they are born. No. Just no. I know why I’m pro-life and if we’re to respect each other and believe women and respect “choices” then I think we need to accept that i have valid reasons for opposing abortion and thinking it involves the taking of human life.
And I’m not alone. Are we all stupid, the millions of women like me who believe it to be wrong? Why is every choice ok except believing abortion should be rare?
You’re not alone.
You can be pro-life and make that CHOICE for yourself. You can have beliefs, and you can live by them. But you don’t get to tell me what to do with my body and my life. It is none of your business. My values and morals are my own. My children came from my body, and I decide how many I want and how to raise them.
You are not imbued with more wisdom and power than anyone else, and you do not get to tell me what my sex life needs to look like or be.
So sure be pro-life for you, but I don’t need or want it for me. I show my respect for life by giving and caring for those who have been born and for animals and the environment.
If you want women to make different choices toward your way of thinking, then overhaul the healthcare system, advocate for women’s health, advocate for contraception, help single mothers with pay equality, make public schools better, fight poverty, be an activist for affordable housing, and job programs. Then maybe a woman will be able to think there is a chance she can raise a child successfully if that is how she leans.
I don’t think people who think like you are stupid, but I do believe you are naive.
Good points, magnoliarose.
I think the distinction here is whether a person works to limit the choices of others. By definition of their agenda, people who are “pro-choice” do not work to narrow medical options available other women. As a political group, “pro-life” supporters actively work to limit the medical options available to women through laws and legislation. Some even work to mandate medical procedures that do not improve women’s health.
Either you’re pro reproductive choice or you’re anti. If you’re anti, you really don’t get to say “except for me, I want kids and even though biologically I can’t, I want medical intervention in my reproductive system to have them.” It’s hypocrisy, and blatant hypocrisy at that. If I were Chastain, I wouldn’t contribute to that.
I’m sorry, if this woman got an abortion that would be hypocrisy. Wanting a child of her own is anything but.
I have fertility issues. I tried for years to have a second child with no success but I have been pregnant a whooping eight times. I’m still 100% pro choice. My desire to have a child has nothing to do with forcing someone else to give birth. Nor do I feel I have the right to tell another woman what to do with her body. If someone isn’t ready for the physical, mental and financial responsibility of having a child, then they shouldn’t.
Some animals eat their babies if they are too stressed to care for them. Abortion seems a lot more acceptable than infanticide (still practiced today in many countries, the abandoning of unwanted newborns happens in every country). There isn’t any god-given divine right to life. And I also believe a woman’s life is worth more than that of a embryo or fetus. People are free to disagree with this of course, but I don’t think they should force their personal choices on others.